daybreakacademy | but some may still have need of me. [WYMW player plot]

but some may still have need of me. [WYMW player plot]

WHO: NPC Wist (and Poe), Shuuya Kano, Toki Rikugou, Rex Arany, Héctor Rivera, and Michael.
WHERE: Wist's forest hideout.
WHEN: April 30.
WHAT: Mission group goes to confront Wist about their magic nonsense.
WARNINGS: n/a as of yet.

The trip into the depths of the forest is a fairly peaceful one -- at least going by its own intentions. If the ragtag bunch creates their own chaos on their walk, that isn't the trees’ business. It’s just there with its gentle rustling as wind coaxes them forth, and to allow them to hear the fae’s hideout before they can see it. There's a soft ring accompanying the breeze, like wind chimes have also banded together and are having a pleasant little chat to pass the day away.

There are no doors to Wist’s woodlands home, only entrances made by open space between trees bent into a dome, branches ducking and weaving together and dappling the ground with specks of light like stars against a colorful carpet of leaves. It seems to be a full range of seasons in this little section of the forest. A dazzling array of leaves, little blossoms bright on the bleak, dark wood, raining down petals in slow motion, a heavy sun, seemingly brighter once you step inside the dome like its forever at its peak, and despite that, a chill in the air that’s almost enough to make you taste metal in your lungs... As expected, dozens of wind chimes hang from the “ceiling” with a welcoming glint and clang.

At the first rustle, there’s a shrill cry.]

AIEEEEE!! YOU ARE SO DEAD!

[...but perhaps it’s not as concerning as it sounds, as the 6’9” fae with black hair to their knees comes through a veil of sewn petals and roughly chucks a game controller onto the soft floor. They seem...absorbed in this tantrum, for the moment.]

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[Anything you want to thread from on the way there? Here you go!]

[ HMM!!!! Hearing that yell, Shuuya suddenly isn't so sure about this, skittering out of the way of that game controller that doesn't even come close to hitting him. He'd kept quiet the entire way here, keeping as close as he can to Michael the entire time and being very grateful that there are so many very tall adults (plus Toki) here so he can keep up that much easier, but compared to Wist in their full height...

Hmm.

He wanted to come because... well... There was nowhere else for him to go. So he's here, hiding behind Michael's legs and very much questioning his life's choices up until this point. ]

Maybe we should come back later...

[ He doesn't want to see more dead people, thank you very much. He doesn't want to be dead people, either. ]

It's alright.

[Michael automatically holds a hand out, as if to either shield Shuuya or keep him firmly behind him, but he doesn't back off just yet. As far as Outlands creatures go, that thrown controller and even this tantrum aren't too strong of a threat. Especially given that they just walked into Wist's house.

Of course, threats are a daemon's currency. With fae, manners are also important.]

Hi! You mind if we come in?

[Toki's ignoring the pleasantries Michael's going with. It's pointless. They're going to talk to the fae no matter what; they don't need to be invited. He steps out from behind Rex to say so, but catches sight of Wist. Everything he was going to say is lost in favor of awkward blatant flirting.]

Such a glorious being stands before me! Your hair tumbles down in waves of silk, yet the abundance of it cannot distract from your magnificent features~! Would that I could hear your melodious voice continue with such passion as you have just shown! The soft ringing of your chimes herald only the most resplendent and statuesque of creatures~!

[The fae freezes. Not a muscle moves, and their hair, which had been flairing out wildly, defies gravity by stopping in place, too.

And then Toki speaks, and it's like a bucket of water has been dumped on them to make their hair cling flat to them. Guests were unexpected enough... This waterfall of compliments is something else entirely.]

Thank...you?

[Right? It sounds nice. Like, all of that sounds really, super, amazingly nice. Yeah!! They were all of that stuff! This kid knows what's up. Now if only...Wist themself did. Their dark pink eyes scan the variety of people standing in their entranceway. After a pause, their hair puffs back out with renewed life.]

Come in! Come in! I forgot we had an appointment.

[They must have an appointment, right?]

...sure. No problem.

[Michael, meanwhile, is staring at Toki for a very different reason. Namely, he's contemplating whether or not he should just verbally disassociate everyone else from him right now - he's not getting killed because some idiot child wanted to get hormonal.]

I'm Michael. We spoke earlier on the network, about -

[And what he says is pretty much incomprehensible to anyone else, but it's just the daemonic name of the region of the Outlands Michael hails from.]

[He makes his way in there slower than the others, naturally, but not as slow as he otherwise might have been. With Rex in their group and his eyes firmly locked on the path ahead, not him, he can't help but bring his pace to something a little more frantic than he ought.

Rex isn't going to bring it up, Shuuya's just a young boy, and Toki... well they barely understand each other. As for Michael, he can probably play it off. Probably.

The one thing to really cut through his barely contained panic attack is the sunlight cutting through the trees. He swore it was night when he woke, and it certainly doesn't feel like daytime with all the draining that brings, but it's bright and warm and it makes his breath catch.

The shout makes him start in place. Half of everything spoken after goes over his head, from Toki's Japanese to... whatever it was Michael just said. He peeks around the others and asks the one thing no one has yet;]

Wist? You're definitely Wist then?

[He tells himself that Wist probably won't notice the way he looks a tad too pale and wide-eyed either, for that matter.]

I don't know if you remember me. I'm Héctor? Ah, Señor R?

[ This is almost the most awkward group it could possibly be for Rex, but passing up a chance to learn even a little of how Wist does what he does would be foolish. He's almost completed the physical side of Phantom as it is- getting them to act like people isn't easy though. Being able to copy actual people's minds would make it so much easier.

He carefully always keeps himself in Héctor's sight and close to Toki, so the former doesn't think he's up to something and the latter doesn't fall in a hole, an eye on Shuuya and Michael. At one point he's distracted and smacks his head on a branch, but whatever. Happens all the time.

The scream had him draw a hand out of his pockets, but it goes back when the source is made clear. He inserts a short- ]

I concur.

[ -in Japanese ffter Toki's outburst, but otherwise is keeping to himself mostly. Héctor's question is pretty sensible and he wants to know the answer. ]

[As baffled as they seem to be, they perk up considerably as they toke note of all the different things -- the daemonic, the familiar names, the affirmations, and...yes, that one is one of theirs, isn't he? At no one thing in particular, they bounce up on their toes and clap.]

Oh!

[It's worth noting that despite the variety of languages being used, Wist seems to understand every word, and while their own words may not always match what their lips are doing, the words, at least, can always be understood.]

Hello! You came to visit me, that's great! We're friends now!

[No escaping it, y'all're friends now.

With a snap from both sets of fingers, a dingy little parlor table appears behind them and then plop back to use it as a chair, despite the handful of chairs similarly popping into existence.]

Come on, come sit! It's nice to meet you all! I'm Wist! Yeah!! You brought me one of my little ones?

[Not complaining, obviously, but why???]

[Michael stiffens a little at that observation.]

We didn't bring him for you. He just wanted to come.

[Although, if they came to negotiate for Kano back...

Michael knows Shuuya's presence here can't be permanent. He doesn't know what to do with that; he doesn't much like thinking about it. But no matter what, he doesn't want it talked about like a Contract. He's not trading Shuuya for something.]

Yes we did! Shuuya needs to merge with whatever essence of Kano is left to get him back, doesn't he!?

[He still doesn't understand how this works, and is unfortunately not abstaining from Contract terminology when he addresses Wist.]

What will it take to get Kano back!? What do you want!?

Everyone else is co-existing with their younger selves just fine, and we aren't making any open-ended deals.

[Honestly now]

[ Friendship is already a foreign enough concept to Shuuya, without the mentions of heralds and statues and essences and whatever the heck they're talking about that he can't understand at all. He climbs up onto the chair, but stands on the seat so he's not the shortest person in the room.

To get Kano back, he has mixed feelings about that, still. He'd learned a lot in the few months he's been here; he's seen a lot, and felt a lot, and loved a lot— he was a little bit happy, and hopeful, and none so much as he does now, standing before Wist with determination in his eyes.

Michael would recognize the look as the one in Kano's eyes when he'd first summoned him, bloodied and broken and demanding a Contract. ]

You're Wist. The one who brought me here... I have a wish.

[It's disappointing, at first, that no one is joining them at the table despite their invitation, gosh humans are just really bad at listening sometimes...but then it doesn't matter, because here's the best of the bunch (sorry, everyone, but they play favorites) stepping up. Forget about if it'll be a deal, or any of that! Boring.

Wist leans forward with a wide smile.]

I love wishes. To answer the bard's question, what I want is to hear yours.

[ Hm... Shuuya's shoulders relax, and he places a smile on his face so he can appear more confident than he really feels. ]

You're su~per powerful, right? You gotta be, if you can do all of this! Bringing people here, sending people away... You can grant me anything I want, right? If it'll make me happy?

[ No point in getting his hopes up if Wist can't or won't do it. Even though he's getting his hopes up now, despite that, knowing it's on the verge of being crushed. ]

[sorry folks]

Really, really powerful! Yeah! I'm great!

[An unimpressed meow interrupts their cheers from behind the petal curtain, and all the wind chimes shiver and ring.]

Ugh. Fine. "Anything" is a little much. I'm still only in my fourth century.

[ Shuuya nearly falls off the chair at the meow and the chimes, startling and catching himself on the backrest before he accidentally steps backwards off the seat. Is there a cat...

His head is turned towards Wist, but his eyes remain fixed behind the curtain, deer-in-the-headlights wide. ]

If... If I go back, and do things differently.. if I do things better, Kano will also be different, right? He'll be better?

[Is that what Shuuya is going to wish for? To go back with memories of here, to make changes in the past?]

But he wouldn't be Kano! He'd be a completely different person! You can't wish for that! You don't know if that would guarantee he'd even be better! Better than what!? Isn't Kano good enough as he is!?

[He can wish for that, but it would change everything.]

[ That is very close to what he wants to wish for, with a caveat.

He really shouldn't be surprised that Toki is still on Kano's side, murder accomplice that he is, but sure even Toki can understand that maybe if Kano wasn't a dick who locks children up in closets, he'd be a vastly better person? ]

Literally anything would be better than how he is now, right...

No! If you're going to wish for that, you should just stay here and let him not exist, because that's what you're wishing for! You've already gotten that wish! You can grow up here and be a new Kano, or you an go back to wherever it was you came from and do the same thing there! It's- you can't just make someone better that way without losing them entirely! He can change from this point on and still be Kano!

[He's not even sure if this makes sense, but he's past caring.]

[ Toki makes no sense and Shuuya turns to literally anybody else to see if they can help him wrap his mind around this.

If he hasn't made it clear to everybody yet, he doesn't want to stay here and grow up to be a new "Kano." Isn't there some sort of timey wimey rule about not having dual existences in the same timeline? Shuuya goes back, grows up and becomes the Kano that made all those terrible choices and gained all these wonderful friends and made a stupid deal with Wist and gets to come back after their conversation with Wist, and he'll be here. He'll be Kano. And he'll be better. It makes sense to him. ]

Okay, let's all calm down a little. You don't even know that they can do it.

[Michael's not really on board with this whole "fixing Kano" plan, but he's also sort of curious about what Shuuya wants to do. What choices would he change? Kano could be better - he could not try to die every goddamn week, for one thing - so what would have changed things?]

What kind of better are we talking, here?

[With a dramatic sigh, they push themself up onto their feet and stomp against the table.]

This argument is for the cows. It's a moo point!

[no one tell them]

I would like to tell you that you'll make him better, little one, but it's not up to me! So it would be a lie. That's something he has to decide for himself, when you go back. Just as it will be up to him whether he wishes to exist, or be a lizard. I do think he would be cuter as a lizard...

[ A moo point... Despite himself, Shuuya's face scrunches, trying not to laugh. Not the time or place, Wist!! He pretends he's biting at his bottom lip and frowning because he's deep in thought, instead, but it doesn't take that much thought to come up with what kind of better and how.

Kano, to his knowledge, is mean and spiteful and angry. Shuuya, in his short life, had also been mean and spiteful and angry, and especially in "that" moment. So he wants to go back, and change "that" moment." ]

Lizards are kinda scary... But if you send me back, and let me make him better, I know he will be! You just gotta send me back to before Mother dies, and then I can save her and then everything will be alright!!

[ The words tumble out, pressured and breathless and painfully hopeful. Give him his Mother back. If Wist can grant that, if Kano could grow up with his Mother, he knows Kano will turn out okay. ]

[Before Mother dies. Toki knows nothing about Kano's mother; the type of person she was. For him, this is Shuuya wanting to save his mother from whatever or whomever killed her and that, he sympathizes with. That's why he made his own daemon contract, those same type of feelings, that same wish.]

I changed my mind! Send him back and let him fix it!

[Not that anyone has been listening to anything Toki says anyway.]

INTO THE WOODS

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